Happy Father’s Day!
Today we celebrate, in our nation, a special recognition of our fathers. These men, who without them, none of us would be here today. These men who helped by their examples to form us into the sons and daughters we are today.
I know that not all fathers are the greatest human witnesses of love and the other virtues, as every man has their own failings and faults, myself included. However, I do believe that even in a man’s mistakes we, their children, do indeed learn lessons for ourselves on how to become better people.
The Church gives us many father figures to look up to as paternal witnesses:
Abraham bears the title “father” in both the Hebrew and the Christian Church; Moses as the father of a new nation; David who was the father of the new covenant and the royal kingdom.
But the greatest father figure we have in the scriptures is the man who Christ, our Lord and Savior, would call father: St. Joseph. Of all the holy men in all the history of the earth, it was this man that was chosen by God for the responsibility and the honor to bear the title of father.
On this Father’s Day we give thanks for all our fathers and the blessing they are in our lives. We also pray to St. Joseph that through his intercession all men and all fathers might imitate more of his holiness and his fatherly virtues.
Pope Francis, when speaking about the great gift of fatherhood, writes:
“Fathers are not born, but made. A man does not become a father simply by bringing a child into the world, but by taking up the responsibility to care for that child. Whenever a man accepts responsibility for the life of another, in some way he becomes a father to that person.”
The Sacrifice of Christ’s Body and Blood
Why is it so important that we understand the Eucharist as a sacrifice? It is because all that Jesus did for the salvation of humanity is made present in the celebration of the Eucharist, including his sacrificial Death and Resurrection. Christ’s sacrifice of himself to the Father was efficacious (having effect) and salvific because of the supreme love with which he shed his blood, the price of our salvation, and offered himself to the Father on our behalf. His blood, shed for us, is the eternal sign of that love. As a memorial, the Eucharist is not another sacrifice, but the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Christ by which we are reconciled to the Father. It is the way by which we are drawn into Jesus’ perfect offering of love, so that his sacrifice becomes the sacrifice of the Church. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his 2007 Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity):
“The remembrance of his perfect gift consists not in the mere repetition of the Last Supper, but in the Eucharist itself, that is, in the radical newness of Christian worship. In this way, Jesus left us the task of entering into his ‘hour.’ ‘The Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation. More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving.’”
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has launched a National Eucharistic Revival to take place from 2022-2024. The mission of the revival is “to renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.” Its vision is “a movement of Catholics across the United States, healed, converted, formed, and unified by an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist—and sent out in mission ‘for the life of the world.’” The revival hopes to draw people closer to Christ by highlighting the Eucharistic themes of real presence, sacrifice, and communion and our response of thanksgiving. The first year will focus on building awareness on the diocesan level, the second year the parish level and the third will culminate on the national level with a National Eucharistic Congress to be held in Indianapolis. There will be much more in the coming months and years about this!
God Bless,
Fr. Bennett
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – Have Mercy On Us
Immaculate Heart of Mary – Pray For Us
Sts. Joseph, Michael, Peter, Paul and Augustine – Pray For Us